Seemandhra leaders are bargaining with the Congress leadership for special status and packages for communities and districts they represent, which analysts said were clear signs of hopes diminishing of keeping the state intact

HYDERABAD: Seemandhra leaders are bargaining with the Congress leadership for special status and packages for communities and districts they represent, which analysts said were clear signs of hopes diminishing of keeping the state intact and leaders reconciling on community lines.

A week after the Congress announced the creation of a separate state of Telangana, Seemandhra leaders spent most of the day lobbying for backward caste status for Kapus, packages for minorities, UT status for Hyderabad, and special focus on Rayalaseema. They are also awaiting a financial package to develop a capital for Andhra Pradesh.

"Party president Sonia Gandhi told us that the Congress is not prepared to go back on Telangana. She asked us to approach the AK Antony committee with our other grievances," said Union railway minister of state Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy in New Delhi, which surmised which way the talks were heading now.

With the Congress high command refusing to budge on bifurcation of the state, subdued Seemandhra Congress leaders are now divided into two camps, Rayalaseema and Andhra, are engaged in hectic parleys to achieve gains for their communities.

The camp led by Union tourism minister K Chiranjeevi will table an alternative proposal of awarding backward caste (BC) status to Kapus to Digvijay Singh, the AICC general secretary in-charge of AP in a day or two, leaders said.

After the division of the state, Kapus might become politically weak and the only hope was having a social coalition with BC, is the new demand being raised, leaders said.

"We have demanded that Kapu community be given BC status without hurting interests of other BC communities. We want the government to make extra provisions in reservations for the Kapus," a senior leader in Chiranjeevi's camp told TOI.

While they are going to submit the proposal to the Antony committee in a day or two, leaders from Rayalaseema have revived the demand for Rayala-Telangana.

A team from Kurnool led by Union railway minister of state Kotla Suryaprakash Reddy along with other leaders met party president Sonia Gandhi and laid down three propositions before her.

While the first demand was to keep the state united, the second, if division is inevitable, was forming greater Rayalaseema with parts of Nellore and Prakasam districts.

There is even talk that Kurnool leaders are lobbying to merge at least the Kurnool district with Telangana, which drew flak from opposition parties in Kurnool district.

Kotla said the meeting was fruitful and hoped that Sonia would protect the interests of the Rayalaseema people. Later, the Kotla team also met President Pranab Mukharjee and requested him to protect the interests of Rayalaseema.

However, former minister and TDP leader N Md Farooq accused Kotla of conspiring to split Kurnool from Raylaseema, in order to merge it with Telangana.

"Kurnool is not his jagir. While people are fighting for keeping the unity of Telugu people, instead of resigning, Union railway minister was lobbying for Kurnool district," he said in Kurnool.

Muslim leaders in Seemandhra have also thrown up a demand for two Haj houses and a compensation package for the new Wakf Board in their region. They alleged that the Wakf Board's activities have always been Telangana-centric and said it was time the community gets more attention now.

Andhra leaders are also trying to extract an assurance on the status of Hyderabad if not the revocation of CWC decision on Telangana.